Where Are Your Feet? — a picture book about a young rabbit called Noodle whose head is always somewhere else. Fourteen spreads, thirty-two pages, finished print files ready for KDP. I’ve written three books for adults. This was my first for children and my first time illustrating anything. The workflow, in case it’s useful: I developed the story and the character with Claude — the manuscript, the spread-by-spread structure, the scene descriptions, and a lot of back-and-forth about what the book was actually about. Then Firefly for the character reference images, Noodle and his friend Tilly. Then StorySmile to build the spreads, hold the character consistent, and produce the print files. Each tool doing the thing it’s good at, rather than fighting one of them to do everything. Four things I learned: -The reference image decides everything. I locked in a lovely seated rabbit — and then every spread came back with him sitting down, no matter how clearly I described standing. The tool wasn’t ignoring me; it was faithfully reproducing the character I’d given it. I had to go back to Firefly and build a second reference before the spreads behaved. -Use the edit function, not a regenerate. When a scene is 90% right, editing preserves the character, setting and continuity and changes only what you asked about. I wasted several generations learning that. -The continuity note wants one backward reference. Not three, and not a description of what future spreads will need. “Same kitchen as Spread 3.” That’s it. -The automated checker is a nudge, not a verdict. It flagged my rabbit’s ears as inconsistent on five separate spreads — they were fine every time. It also caught a genuine trim-edge problem I’d have missed. Treat it as a prompt to go and look, and trust your own eyes. And the thing that actually mattered: My opening line was “Noodle has very big feet.” Five attempts later the feet were still ordinary rabbit feet, because a soft watercolor rabbit is a soft watercolor rabbit and the style was never going to caricature.

Creating a children's book sounds easy enough, right? Write a short story, generate some illustrations with AI, and publish it on Amazon KDP. But then reality hits… 😩 ❌ Your AI characters look different on every page. ❌ Creating beautiful two-page spreads becomes a formatting nightmare. ❌ Your text gets lost in the illustrations. ❌ And how the heck do you turn your finished book into an EPUB? That's exactly why I built StorySmile! 💗 👉 SETUP YOUR STORYSMILE ACCOUNT HERE I've been working behind the scenes on something designed to make children's book creation a whole lot easier, and I'm SO excited to finally share it with you! 🎥 Watch the video below to see StorySmile in action and learn how you can start creating your own illustrated children's books. ✨ StorySmile is FREE to try, and special launch pricing is available! PLUS, if you're a Premium member of this community, you automatically get 3 StorySmile credits included with your membership! 🎁 Let's bring those children's book ideas to life! 📚💕 💡 (Quick Disclaimer: StorySmile is an AI-powered tool, so results may vary and occasional adjustments may be needed. For the best experience, we recommend using a desktop or laptop rather than a mobile device.)

This is an open invitation to talk about your book. 👉 If you already have a book published, feel free to share about the book. 🔗 Links are OK. 👉 If you're working on a book, share about what you're working on and where you're at in the process.

I've been working on something behind the scenes for a while now, and I'm FINALLY ready to share it with you! If you've ever dreamed of becoming a children's book author, you're going to want to pay attention to tomorrow's announcement! 👀 I'm officially launching StorySmile , something I've created to help authors turn their creative ideas into something REAL! ✨ And because this community means so much to me, you'll be the FIRST to get access before I open it up to everyone else! 🎁 BONUS FOR PREMIUM MEMBERS: You're automatically getting 3 FREE StorySmile credits included with your membership! 📅 Tomorrow is the BIG reveal! 👇 In the meantime, tell me: Have you ever thought about publishing a children's book?

🚨 𝗕𝗶𝗴 𝗮𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗼𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘂𝗽𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗔𝗖𝗫/𝗔𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲! If you publish audiobooks, there are several new tools rolling out that could make it easier to launch, promote, and sell your titles. Here’s what’s coming: 📅 𝗔𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗼𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗣𝗿𝗲-𝗢𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 ACX is rolling out the ability to set up pre-orders before your audiobook officially releases. This could be a great way to build momentum before launch and give your existing audience a chance to grab the book early. 📣 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗼 𝗖𝗮𝗿𝗱𝘀 Audible now has downloadable promotional graphics for your audiobook titles that are already sized for social media. This should make it much easier to promote your audiobooks without having to design every graphic yourself. 🔎 𝗔𝗺𝗮𝘇𝗼𝗻 𝗔𝗱𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗔𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗼𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸𝘀 This is probably the update I’m most interested in. Authors will have more opportunities to advertise audiobook titles through Amazon Ads in the U.S., which means your audiobook could appear when readers are searching for your books or similar titles. ⚡ 𝗙𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗔𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗼𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗣𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 ACX says they’re also shortening the amount of time it takes for new audiobooks and updates to go live. That should make coordinating audiobook launches with paperback and ebook releases much easier. Audiobooks have been a significant part of my publishing income, so I’m definitely going to be watching how these tools develop. 𝗘𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗺𝗮𝘇𝗼𝗻 𝗔𝗱𝘀 + 𝗽𝗿𝗲-𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗲𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀. 👀 If you already have audiobooks published, which one of these updates are you most excited about? And if you haven’t created an audiobook yet… this might be another reason to start thinking about adding audio to your publishing strategy. 🎧📚